Helga do Rosario Gomes

Research Scientist, Biology and Paleo Environment, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), Columbia Climate School
61 Route 9W Palisades, NY 10964 US

BIOGRAPHY:

Helga do Rosario Gomes (Maria Fatima Helga do Rosario Gomes) is from the state of Goa in India, famous for its beautiful beaches so it’s inevitable that she was drawn to oceanography from a young age. She graduated with a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Bombay University and after research positions in Japan and in Maine, she has been a Research Scientist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Climate School from 2010 onwards.

Her research interests in climate impacts on marine ecosystems and ocean biogeochemistry have led her to study the impact of UV radiation on phytoplankton photosynthesis in the Antarctic waters, the influence of the Amazon River continuum in biological sequestration of carbon dioxide and the rise of mixotrophy in the Arabian Sea. She uses her diverse expertise in biochemistry, microbiology and remote sensing to develop methods to assess primary productivity both at the cellular level and from space. Dr. Gomes is interested in large-scale climatic questions such as the impacts of the new and unusual planktonic blooms in the Arabian Sea, the effect of Arctic warming and ice melt on the American lobster, the impact of urbanization on wetland systems especially around the Long Island Sound and ocean acidification and deoxygenation of waters from harmful algal blooms.

With her colleagues she has been developing ocean monitoring and decision support systems tailored to meet needs for sustainable management of coastal resources in tropical countries experiencing climate change. Currently she is a co-PI of a recent Colombia University President Global Fund Award to develop a prototype Kenya Ocean Monitoring and Decision Support System for sustainable coastal resource management under climate change. She is a member of SCOR Working Group SCOR Working Group 165 “Mixotrophy in the Oceans – Novel Experimental designs and Tools for a new trophic paradigm (MixONET)”.

She mentors postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students but passion lies in providing guidance and support to high school students some of who have won national and international awards.

Dr. Gomes is a trustee and Science Advisor for Goa Chitra, Goa, India, an anthropological museum that preserves and showcases the culture and lifestyle of the people of the west coast of India. She advises them on research programs for overseas students and has held a series of classes on Climate change and rising sea level for coastal communities of Goa.

PROJECTS

Only select projects listed below

Name	Start Date	End Date
A Time Series of Sea Surface Nitrate and Nitrate Based New Production in the Global Oceans	5/1/13	4/30/19
Bio-Optical Monitoring and Evaluation System (BIOMES) for Improving Satellite Estimates of Ocean Net Primary Production for Carbon Cycling and Climate Change Studies	12/1/19	11/30/22
Refined Integration of Remote Sensing with Biological Parameters for Improved Management of LIS Water Quality/Long Island Sound Study 2018-2022	10/1/20	9/30/21
BIOSCape-Mapping of phytoplankton functional types from space in support of coastal resource management and decision support activities	6/1/22	5/1/25
GLIMR: A hyperspectral geostationary sensor for measurement of dynamic coastal ecosystem and carbon cycle processes	5/1/21	1/1/27
RAPID: Assessing the Response of the Seychelles-Chagos Thermocline Ridge Ecosystem to an Indian Ocean Dipole Event	3/1/20	2/1/23
Bio-Optical Monitoring and Evaluation System (BIOMES) for improving satellite estimates of Ocean Net Primary Production for Carbon Cycling and Climate Change studies	12/1/19	11/1/22
Decision and Information System for the Coastal waters of Oman (DISCO) - An integrative tool for managing coastal resources under changing climate	5/1/17	4/1/23
Collaborative Research: NNA Research: Rapid Arctic change and its implications for fisheries and fishing communities of the western North Atlantic	1/1/23	12/1/23
Ecological and sociodemographic determinants and impacts of urbanization and restoration on intertwined urban-wetland-estuarine systems	7/1/17	7/1/22
Development of a Prototype Kenya Ocean Monitoring and Decision Support System for Sustainable Coastal Resource Management under Climate Change	6/1/22	8/1/24
Mixotrophy in the Oceans – Novel Experimental designs and Tools for a new trophic paradigm (MixONET) (SCOR Working Group 165)	1/1/21	8/1/24
Geostationary Littoral Imaging and Monitoring Radiometer (GLIMR) Instrument	5/17/21	1/31/30
NNA Research: Collaborative Research: Rapid Arctic change and its Implications for Fisheries and Fishing Communities of the Western North Atlantic	1/1/23	12/31/25
Exploiting Multi-platform, Multisensor Data for Improved Measurements of Net Primary Production from GCOM-C SGLI for Climate Change Studies	5/1/22	3/31/24
MARACOOS (Mid-Atlantic IOOS): Powering Understanding and Prediction of the Mid-Atlantic Ocean, Coast, and Estuaries	5/3/22	7/31/23

PUBLICATIONS

See Google Scholar for a complete list.

Selected publications:

Wu, J., J. I. Goes,, H. do R. Gomes, Z. Lee, J-H. Noh, J. Wei, Z. Shang, J. Salisbury, A. Mannino, W.Kim, Y-Je Park, M. Ondrusek, V. P. Lance, M. Wang, R. Frouin (2022). Estimates of diurnal and daily Net Primary Productivity using the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager (GOCI) data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 280, 113183.

Silsbe, G., Gomes, H.do R., (2022). The use of variable fluorescence for assessment of phytoplankton photophysiology and rates of primary production. Chapter in NASA/IOCCG (International Ocean-Colour Coordinating Group) Aquatic Primary Productivity protocol.

Gomes, H. do R., J. I. Goes, K. Al-Hashimi, L. Al-Kharusi (2020) Global Distribution and Range Expansion of Green Vs Red Noctiluca Scintillans. In: Dinoflagellates: Morphology, Life History, and Ecological Significance, Ed. D. Subba Rao, Nova Publishers.

Gomes, H. do R., Xu, Q., Ishizaka, J., Carpenter, E.J., Yager, P.L., and Goes, J.I. (2018). The Influence of Riverine Nutrients in Niche Partitioning of Phytoplankton Communities–A Contrast Between the Amazon River Plume and the Changjiang (Yangtze) River Diluted Water of the East China Sea. Frontiers in Marine Science, 10.3389/fmars.2018.00374.

Gomes, H. do R., J. I. Goes, S.G. Prabhu Matondkar, E. J. Buskey, S. G. Parab, S. Basu & P. Thoppill (2014), Massive outbreaks of Noctiluca blooms in the Arabian Sea linked to the spread of hypoxia, Nature Communications. 5:4862 doi: 10.1038/ncomms5862

Rixen, T., Cowie, G., Gaye, B., Goes, J., do Rosário Gomes, H., Hood, R.R., Lachkar, Z., Schmidt, H., Segschneider, J., and Singh, A. (2020). Reviews and syntheses: Present, past, and future of the oxygen minimum zone in the northern Indian Ocean. Biogeosciences 17, 6051-6080.

Staff and Affiliates Directory

Helga do Rosario Gomes

PROJECTS

PUBLICATIONS